Police expect to solve dozens of thefts from cars in Dunedin this year, following their recent apprehension of two groups of teenagers.
The teens were believed to have been stealing from cars across Dunedin city, mainly in the southern and hill suburbs, for the past few months, said police intelligence analyst Heather Dunne.
Police youth aid were speaking with one group of teenagers from Mosgiel, mostly aged 13 and 14, in relation to several burglaries, and that group was also believed to have been targeting money left lying in unlocked cars in the southern suburbs of Dunedin.
A trio of 16-year-olds arrested last week following a burglary on Highgate were being spoken to by police about a significant number of thefts from around the hill suburbs, which had occurred on the same night.
Although people often did not report thefts from cars - sometimes because they did not think it was significant enough, other times because they did not even know they had been targeted - there had been about 30 thefts from cars reported in Dunedin each of the past three months, which was unusually high.
While "a chunk" of them might be able to be attributed to the two groups already being talked to by police, it was highly likely other groups were operating in the city and targeting cars, so people should not be complacent, Ms Dunne said.
The message to car owners remained the same.
"Offenders have said to us that if cars were unlocked they would target them. Basically they are not interested in locked cars."
